Who was uphill? Gwyneth Paltrow trial spotlights skier code

Skiers have likely noticed signs at mountain resorts across the country saying, “Know the code.” They refer to universal rules of conduct for skiers and snowboarders — people who partake in inherently risky snow sports that involve navigating down crowded slopes, often at high speeds.

But whether they actually understand the code is another question. For non-skiers, it’s likely something they’ve never heard of. That’s all changing as actor Gwyneth Paltrow’s highly publicized ski collision trial is live-streamed from the courtroom. The actor-turned-lifestyle-influencer was accused of crashing into a fellow skier during a 2016 family trip to the upscale, skiers-only Deer Valley resort in Utah.

After initially suing Paltrow for $3.1 million, retired optometrist Terry Sanderson, is now suing for at least $300,000.

The celebrity trial is shining a spotlight on the unspoken rules that govern behavior on the slopes. Testimony over the last six days has repeatedly touched on skier’s etiquette — especially sharing contact information after a collision, and ski turn radiuses — in what experts have said is the most high-profile ski collision trial in recent history.

There are about 100 code-related lawsuits playing out now outside the spotlight, but most cases are settled before going to trial.

Throughout the trial, the word “uphill” has emerged as synonymous with “guilty,” as attorneys have leaned heavily on one of the code’s main tenets: The skier who is downhill or ahead on a slope has the right of way.

Rather than focus solely on the question of who hit who, attorneys for both sides have questioned nearly every witness — from Paltrow’s private ski instructors to Sanderson’s doctors — about who was downhill at the time of the collision.

The question has become a focal point of the trial, as both sides call legions of family members, friends and doctors to testify in Park City — the posh resort town in the Rocky Mountains that draws a throng of celebrities each year for the Sundance Film Festival.

In the courtroom, attorneys have used the term “downhill” hundreds of times each day — to try to persuade the jury that the opposing side represents the skier who was uphill and to blame.

Paltrow’s legal team has invested heavily in convincing the jury that she was downhill when the crash happened, even commissioning artists to render their client’s version of events with multiple, advanced animations.

Because no video footage of the collision was included as evidence, the recollections of a ski buddy of Sanderson’s who claimed last week to be the collision’s sole eyewitness has become a sticking point for Paltrow’s team.

Throughout questioning, Paltrow’s team has played high-resolution videos on a projector positioned between witnesses and the jury box — showing the eyeball-like prunes of Deer Valley’s aspen trees, the ski coats of Paltrow’s children and grooming lines on Bandana, the beginner run where Sanderson and Paltrow crashed.

“Ms. Paltrow’s version of events is consistent with the laws of physics and how people move and rotate,” said Irving Scher, a biomechanical engineer hired by Paltrow’s defense team, who testified Tuesday.

In an equally theatrical display, Sanderson’s lawyers tried to rope Paltrow into a reenactment of events to poke holes in her claim that Sanderson ran into her from behind — yet ended up on top when the two plummeted to the ground. Her attorneys objected to the actor’s participation in the scene and the judge put the kibosh on that.

While there are minor differences in state laws when it comes down to finding fault, “in court it becomes a question of who was the uphill skier,” said Denver attorney Jim Chalat, who has litigated cases in Utah as well. His firm, Chalat Hatten & Banker, has 20 active collision cases in Colorado alone.

“It’s the uphill skier who is almost always in a position to cause the crash,” Chalat said Monday. “If you’re skiing too fast for your own ability and you can’t carve out a turn, and you hit someone, you’re going to be in trouble.”

Still, crashes between skiers are rare. The majority of incidents resulting in injuries or death occur when skiers or snowboarders slam into stationary objects, usually trees. Collisions involving people represent only about 5% of skier injuries, Chalat said.

During the 2021-2022 season, there were two reported fatalities as a result of collisions between two skiers, according to the National Ski Areas Association.

Even though serious crashes are uncommon, the snow sports industry has prioritized collision awareness in its safety programming. The responsibility code was recently updated to urge skiers involved in a collision to share contact information with each other and a ski area employee, said Adrienne Saia Isaac, the National Ski Areas Association’s marketing director.

“Skier-skier collisions are a generally preventable risk we needed to make folks aware of, and let them know what to do if they were involved in one,” Isaac said in an email.

Last week, Paltrow was grilled by Sanderson’s attorneys for leaving the collision without first exchanging information with Sanderson. She said she made sure one of the family’s ski instructors handled that for her.

The majority of ski collision cases are typically settled before going to trial, and very often the payouts are covered by one’s homeowners insurance, said Los Angeles attorney John Morgan of the firm Morgan & Morgan.

Very few cases target the ski resorts where crashes occurred because of the inherent dangers that come with skiing and snowboarding, Morgan said. The mountain where the Paltrow-Sanderson collision happened, Deer Valley, was removed from the lawsuit in part because skiers absolve resorts of responsibility by agreeing to a set of rules on the back of every lift ticket.

“It’s like going to a baseball game and you get hit in the head by a foul ball. You know by sitting there that there’s some risk of that happening,” he said.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition